Derek W. Vaillant, University of Michigan: “Local/Regional and National Radio Cultures in the Struggle for Racial Justice and Inclusion, 1912-1988”

Event Date: 

Friday, March 17, 2023 - 4:00pm

Event Location: 

  • TBD

Derek Vaillant is a CITS Visiting Researcher. His book project uses archival methods, science and

technology studies, and media and sound history and theory to explore America’s emergent “radio
borderlands” —the interzone where local/regional and nationally produced broadcasting practices
and discourses intersect. I argue that within these physical and conceptual spaces, and in political
struggles on the ground, the consequences of radio for racial identity formation and democratic
transformation are made manifest. The study opens in 1912, with the emergence of licensed point-
to-point radio communication, and concludes in 1988, amid the reimagining of broadcasting in the
wake of the 1960s and 1970s.
January 8, 2023 - 3:06pm